She did not expect their reunion would be something like this.

Her eyes immediately fell upon Agnarr, slumped onto the throne with the imposing shape of the Nightmare Spirit rising out of him – just like the Will O' Wisp's vision. He looked thinner than how she remembered him, and Iduna's heart wrenched painfully seeing how empty he looked; as if the man she'd fallen in love with had been snatched away and locked up, replaced by someone she didn't know.

Then she slowly looked above at the Nightmare Spirit. Its eyes couldn't be seen beneath the shadow of its jet-black cloak, but she could tell from its posture that it was wary of her; the notion seemed silly, but apparently it hadn't forgotten how she had cut it off from Agnarr by punching him awake.

It wasn't about to be caught off-guard twice; an entire squad of possessed soldiers stood between Iduna and Agnarr, swords drawn and shields raised to protect their King… sort of. Even if she was aided by the Sylph and the Will O' Wisp, who were waiting outside to stop more soldiers from coming in, there was no way she was getting past them.

Except… maybe she didn't need to.

Ahtohallan didn't teach her anything about her past, or why she could call upon the spirits, or why so many of them acted friendly to her. But her journey has taught her many aspects of this side of her, and now she had a deeper understanding about herself and what she could do.

She knew what she had to do then and there.

AH-AH-AH-AHH –

Her call rang out clearer than ever, and the soldiers (or rather, the banshees that possessed them) looked at each other in confusion. The Nightmare Soldier, meanwhile, immediately reacted to her voice – it began rising higher and higher until its head almost reached the celling, with only a thin layer of smoke connecting itself to Agnarr.

Iduna knew her plan was working; evil or not, the Nightmare Spirit was still a spirit, and it was answering to Iduna's call. Perhaps it had been waiting for this moment as well, ever since it had first encountered the Spiritcaller all this time ago.

With an unearthly shriek that almost sounded, the specter swept down at Iduna like a pouncing hawk, and Iduna embraced it with open arms –

- and darkness claimed her.

Somehow, Iduna knew that she would wake up to see herself in the Enchanted Forest.

Of course the Nightmare Spirit would've chosen this place to show her something horrible. This was the moment where it all began, when she lost her family, her friends, her home… it used to be her entire world, and within a single moment it had become a place of betrayal and death.

Iduna would have laughed at the specter's lack of creativity… if it weren't for the sight of bodies covering every part of the forest.

In her head Iduna knew this was just an illusion, no more real than the bad dreams she soothed Agnarr out of so often in the past, but that didn't make the bloody sight any less horrible. Many of the Northuldra bodies belonged to someone she used to know, and it took all of her willpower to stop her knees from wobbling in despair.

Was Agnarr haunted by this kind of nightmare when she had been singing her lullaby next to him? Was she going through the suffering he had to endure for years?

Iduna violently shook her head, shutting her eyes and trying to force the terrible sight out of her mind. This is not real, this is not real. She had to overcome this…

"Iduna…"

Her eyes snapped open as a familiar voice called out her name, and she looked behind her to see the Northuldra chieftain slowly walking towards her… blood all over him and an Arendellian sword embedded into his back.

"Chief…" Iduna felt her heart break as she looked at the elderly man. She had been closer to the Northuldra leader compared to others of her age, and he had been interested in her extraordinary friendship with the spirits. They were quite an unlikely pair of friends… and now here she was, watching him suffer under the terrible fate that she'd barely managed to escape.

"Look what the Arendellians did to us, Iduna…" whispered the Chief, coughing up more blood in the process as his burning gaze bore into her eyes. "They betrayed us! Everything was a lie from the start. They tricked us into weakening the forest, then lured us into this treachery! Murderers! Thieves!"

Iduna was silent as she took in all the hate emanating from the old man, so unnatural compared to his usual calm and wise personality. Maybe it was the stark unrealness of it that kept her from being swept up by his rage as well, whether it was righteous or not.

"Let justice be done, Iduna," continued the Chief with a new sense of urgency, holding out one bloodied hand at Iduna. "A wrong must be righted. Remember your roots, Iduna! You don't belong here. They look at you now and smile, but once they find out you are one of us…"

THAT made Iduna shudder. No one had any idea who had betrayed the other first, Arendelle or the Northuldra, but the fight that resulted from it certainly did not endear her people to Agnarr's. If they were to find out her true heritage, would they accept her purely for who she is like they were doing now?

"Stand with your people, Iduna," urged the Chief, eyes glinting upon seeing Iduna waver. "Avenge me, avenge us! Avenge your people! They were the ones who unleashed this nightmare before you. Let them have a taste of their own medicine, Iduna!"

There was a sense of desperation in his voice as he pleaded to be avenged, so much fear, so much anger… so contagious. For a moment it almost overwhelmed Iduna too, convincing her, threatening to sweep her away…

But then she remembered the vision Ahtohallan showed her, the future in which the Northuldra and Arendelle meet once again in friendship and love, where the Fifth Spirit return to truly connect humanfolk and nature.

Iduna wasn't so foolish that she'd think that future was written in stone for her – she would have to work to make it true. And she knew that if she took the Chief's hand now, no matter how right it would seem to do so at the moment, that future will never come to be.

So with a heavy heart she stood up, looked straight into those burning eyes of the dying Chief, and said: "No."

The old man – no, the Nightmare Spirit, Iduna corrected herself – looked incredulous that she would try and fight back this nightmare, completely taken aback by her resistance. With a jolt of understanding, Iduna realized that the specter still thought of her as the scared and unsure child that thwarted it five years ago. That five years ago, in Arendelle and throughout her journey, had changed her in ways that it couldn't hope to understand, and that made Iduna happier than she could've imagined.

"The real Chief would've never spoken like that, and even if he did my answer wouldn't change," continued the girl regretfully as her eyes came level with the elder. "I won't forget the violence in our past, but I won't pretend I know the whole truth. Maybe one of us are to blame and maybe not, and one day the truth will be found… but we can't do that now, and I won't give into hate without a reason."

"The truth means nothing in the face of fear!" Spat the Chief, his voice beginning to crack up and distort and the blood on his body turning into black smoke; the Nightmare Spirit's guise was failing in the face of her rejection.

"You try to use fear to turn my family and friends against each other," snarled Iduna as she fixed the specter with a cold glare. "Then fear is my enemy. You may have trapped me in your world now, but I'll fight back with every breath I have! I won't ever let my fear hurt the ones I love again!"

"AAAAAARGH!"

A painful scream woke Agnarr with a start, and he thought he was thrown into a nightmare again – for he had only heard that voice scream in the worst of his nightmares.

"Iduna…?" He croaked out, looking around him in confusion; his whole body felt so weak, as if he hadn't slept in days, and his mind was still muddled with the visions of the Enchanted Forest and his father's words still lingering in his ears, urging him to find Iduna…...

Iduna!

A second pained groan snapped Agnarr out of his stupor, and the young King staggered to his feet as he furiously rubbed his eyes to get rid of all the blurs. His head had cleared just enough to realize that he'd just been freed from a spell of some sort, but what…?

And then he saw her.

Iduna was collapsed on the floor near the entrance to the throne room, and Agnarr gasped in horror to see a familiar pitch-black shape rising out of her like a djinn and its lamp, the same figure that he had seen her defeat five years ago and saved his life.

Even in his befuddled state Agnarr was smart enough to put two and two together; he had been possessed by the Nightmare Spirit, and Iduna had somehow taken the specter into herself, effectively sacrificing herself for him.

"NO!" cried the young King as he completely broke out of his stupor, and he noticed that they weren't alone; practically half the Royal Guards were there, but their eyes seemed oddly empty, as if they were being possessed by something too. And they looked… confused?

Agnarr's puzzled look returned to Iduna again, and this time he noticed something more.

"I… won't…" Iduna was seething through clenched teeth, and Agnarr realized that she wasn't writhing on the ground just out of pain; she was fighting back. She was resisting the Nightmare Spirit, which was writhing midair itself as it desperately tried to subjugate its half-asleep victim.

His last encounter with the dark spirit taught Agnarr enough to know that without a host it was no threat, but could how was he to remove that thing from Iduna while she could still withstand its torments?

Angry spirits cannot be harmed with anything but magic…

The old troll's words suddenly echoed in Agnarr's head, and he began fumbling in his pockets until it produced exactly what he needed: the obsidian dagger that Pabbie had given him for precaution. To think that it would come of use so soon!

"I…. AAAAAAAHHHHHH!"

Iduna let out an earsplitting shriek again, and Agnarr rushed through the wall of soldiers (who still seemed too baffled to do anything) and sat by her side. To his amazement he could see a small, black orb rising out of the young girl's back with excruciating slowness, and it was connected to the Nightmare Spirit's smoky lower form as it screeched in dismay trying to push it back into her.

That must be its core! Deduced Agnarr, deciding there was no time to hesitate.

"Forgive me, Iduna!" Whispered Agnarr as he whipped out the stone dagger, beating down his fear for a split second – before plunging the magical artifact straight into the black orb.

I told you to pay attention to Pabbie's gift in Chapter 12, right? :)

See the next chapter for what fate awaits Iduna after being literally stabbed in the back...